In May 2023, Air India launched a safety management software called Coruson, as well as BAM (Boeing Alertness Model), a fatigue mitigation tool integrated with the rostering system that the airline uses to create and manage pilot schedules. Developed by cloud software company Ideagen, Coruson centralizes, analyzes and reports safety-related data — such as incidents, threats and risk assessments. BAM, jointly developed by Boeing and software company Jeppesen, predicts and manages pilot fatigue by analyzing flight schedules and performance data. These tools are designed to prevent the creation of tiring schedules and pairs, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson noted in a statement. internal message to employees. The carrier also introduced two novel digital tools for its crew — the Pilot Sector Report app, which is designed to aid pilots easily submit information on flight performance, incidents and post-flight observations; and DocuNet, a digital management system that makes it easier to store, search and share documents (such as flight manuals, training records and compliance documents).
Despite these measures, the airline was fined by DGCA in March this year for violating FDTL limits and fatigue management rules. In May this year, Air India Express cabin crew I called in sick to protest en masse against “mismanagement.” This followed a similar protest by the crew, mainly pilots, View airlines. Both Air India and Vistara are now owned by one of India’s largest conglomerates, the Tata Group, which acquired the former from the Indian government in January 2022.
Twenty-five Air India Express employees who called in ailing have been fired. Others have reportedly been given ultimatum. Those dismissed were later reinstated by the airline after intervention by the Chief Labour Commissioner. Almost a week earlier, the Regional Labour Commissioner in Delhi had allegedly written to the Tata Group chairman, citing “blatant violations of labor laws” and urging that cabin crew’s legitimate concerns be investigated. According to CNBC, Vistara employees said their protest was linked to recent pay updates that pegged pilot pay at 40 hours of flying time — down from 70. Protesting first officers claimed the novel pay structure would result in a nearly 57 percent pay cut. Under the novel terms, they would also have to fly for up to 76 hours to earn what they were previously earning, or 70 hours.
In order to reassure pilots and encourage them to return to work, management assured them that salaries for “extra working hours” will be recognized when Vistara is integrated with Air India. Meanwhile, two Air India pilots’ unions wrote to the company’s CEO that such problems are not isolated but systemic. The burnout was A second related problem is that many pilots complain about insufficient rest and the feeling that they are being forced to work beyond their strength.
Captain Singha former senior manager at AirAsia, tells WIRED that such effects significantly increase the risk of accidents, but also adversely affect pilots’ long-term health. Tail-swapping—quickly jumping between different types of aircraft to immediately take off after dismounting another—has become more common under the 13-hour rule and can further contribute to exhaustion, as can rushing to acclimatize and, most importantly, landing three, four or more flights in a row, which Captain Randhawa described as “a serious energy management challenge.”
In 2024 “Safety Culture Survey” conducted by the Singh Safety Foundation in July, 81 percent of 530 respondents, mostly medium- and short-haul pilots, said unbuffered schedules contributed to their fatigue. A full 84 percent cited concerns about the speed and direction of shift rotations. “That’s the problem with the new schedulers that operators are rolling out,” says a private-airline pilot who asked not to be identified. “They’re optimizers designed to make pilots work every second of their 13-hour schedule, leaving no breathing room.” Flight schedules with insufficient buffers force pilots to work at their limits, so any additional pressures — such as unpredictable weather — can easily overwhelm them.
Whether to solve this problem with wrist-worn fatigue-monitoring devices is a contentious issue. But that’s not the only problem. In the year since they were first hyped, the buzz around fatigue-management technologies has all but died down. There’s been no update from IndiGo on the wrist-based device. Neither IndiGo nor Thales Group responded to requests for comment.